Page 160 of Top Shelf

All of us are sweaty and spent, the limousine windows fogged up with the heat of our bodies.

“Wait.” Peering out the blacked-out window, I frown. “Why aren’t we moving?”

“I told the driver to park and get out as soon as you started attacking Silas,” Ronan declares.

Mouth agape, I stare up at him. It’s his arms I was scooped up into, and I’m currently lying across his chest. “Why did you do that?”

He blinks down at me. “No one but us should get to hear those sexy little noises you make when you come, Little Serpent.” Leaning down, he kisses the tip of my nose. “They are only for us.”

37

WREN

The semester is somehow almostover.

I don’t know when that happened.

One minute, I’m drowning in coursework, hockey schedules, and trying not to have a nervous breakdown over my future. The next, Valehurst is preparing for finals, the Kings are headed to the Frozen Four, and my calendar looks like somebody attacked it with a highlighter.

For once, though, I don’t mind.

I’m exhausted, sure, but it’s the good kind. The kind that comes from building something. The youth charity weekend turned a corner for me when it came to my internship. It helped everyone realize what I was capable of. That I could do more than order coffee and make copies.

Now, people ask for my help with coordinating events, and I’ve been asked to review proposals. I take part in meetings where people actually listen when I speak.

The biggest shock of all?

I’m loving every second of it.

Well, maybe not this very second. It’s nearly midnight, I’ve been up since five this morning, and bed is calling my name as Ifinally shut down my laptop and look around the otherwise empty office. Even the overhead lights have given up for the day and turned off several hours ago, leaving only the glare from my laptop and the dim yellow glow of my desk lamp.

Stiff from sitting for too long, I stretch my arms over my head before adjusting my glasses, grabbing my bag, and pulling out my phone.

Me

Leaving now.

Three dots appear immediately.

Lucian

My bed is feeling awfully cold. Wanna come warm it up with me?

Ronan

Need one of us to come get you?

Silas

My chest warms at their various versions of concern.

Me

I’m walking home. Stopworrying.

Lucian

Ronan